THE WHITE-NECKED RAVEN. 



utters most harsh and hoarse cries, almost similar to those of the raven, 

 and which singularly concur with its shape and habits, to give the idea 

 of a savage, cruel, and disgusting being which we form of the ravens in 

 general, from the whole of their disagreeable and mournful attributes. 



The white-necked raven joins to the habits I have just mentioned, 

 a marked appetite for live prey : he attacks and kills lambs and young 

 antelopes, and devours them, after having previously torn out the eyes 

 and tongue. He is seen pursuing flocks of buffalos, oxen, and horses, 

 and indeed the rhinoceros, and even the elephant himself. His taste 

 for flesh and blood leads him to the pursuit of those large quadrupeds, 

 on the back of which they are continually perched in great numbers. 

 The white-necked raven would be for these animals a bird of prey, 

 deadly and dangerous, if it had the strength necessary to destroy them ; 

 but being powerless against their strong and solid hide, he satisfies 

 himself by plunging his bill into the wounds of the animal, in the 

 suppurating parts of its body, when the hide is opened by the pustules 

 which have been made by the wood-lice, and above all by the breeze- 

 flies (TabaJis), in disposing their eggs in the thickness of the skin. If 

 these quadrupeds thus allow the white-necked raven to perch on their 

 back, it is in consideration of a service which its sanguinary instinct 

 renders them ; a service which they receive with a sort of pleasure, 

 since they suffer and allow him to pick out the larvae developed and full 

 of blood, the number of which is sometimes so great upon those large 

 animals, that I have seen several of them perish from leanness. 



The white-necked raven is not a bird of passage; he lives throughout 

 the year in the canton where he was hatched. I have generally found it 

 in all the places which I have visited in my travels through Africa. 

 There are, however, some cantons in which it is more abundant than in 

 others, as for example, among the Great Namaquas. He is more rare 

 in the environs of Cape Town, but is found abundantly in Swarte 

 Land, where he is seen to mix with another very common species of 

 which I shall speak under the name of white breasted crow. The colo- 

 nists call the white-necked raven, Ring-hals- Kraai. The female is 

 rather smaller than the male ; the white of her collar is less spread ; 

 and her black is also less glossy, and seems in general of a browner 

 cast. 



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